Curricular Connections

The Hopkins Center encourages powerful group experiences in the arts for students, enriching academic courses and putting the arts at the center of Dartmouth’s ongoing focus on experiential learning.

Curricular Connections is a Hop program that enables faculty to bring a class to an assigned arts event and, in cases where no other funding is readily available, provides funding to support the full cost of those student tickets and one faculty member ticket.

While the Hop already provides deeply subsidized student ticket prices of $5-$10 per show (60-80% off the general price), Curricular Connections aims to further reduce financial barriers for students attending arts events in an educational context. Last season, 68 professors from 24 academic departments brought students to 51 different live performances and films through Curricular Connections. The program is fully funded by the Hop Experiential Learning Fund.

Here are the procedures for any faculty member interested in participating in Curricular Connections. They are intended to streamline the process for faculty, minimize the number of tickets that unused and unsold to the general public, and keep the program sustainable for the Hop.

Fill out the Curricular Connections Online Request form. This includes basic information about you, your course and the performance or film you are planning for your class to attend, an estimate of the number of tickets needed, whether funding is secured or needed, and how tickets will be picked up etc. This will enable us to hold a block of seats for your request.

Within 5 business days of submitting your request (and often much sooner), you will receive an email notification from the Curricular Connections Coordinator indicating whether Hop Experiential Learning Funding was granted (if applied for).

7 business days before the date of the event, you will receive an email requesting that you submit revised, final ticket numbers. You must reply to this email confirming or updating the details of your request before the Box Office can process your order. This ensures that you will receive the appropriate number of tickets and that any tickets you no longer need can be sold to the public.

If no revised numbers are provided, we will use the anticipated ticket numbers in the initial request.

We do our best to accommodate changes to the requested ticket numbers, but cannot guarantee that late requests for additional tickets can always be honored.

In the event that no revised numbers are provided within the 4 business day window, and the student tickets go unused, the Hop reserves the right to charge the relevant department for the full cost of the seat, as it represents a seat that could have been sold at public face value.

4 business days before the event, the tickets will be prepared in a single envelope and filed under the teaching faculty member’s name, ready to be picked up at the Hop Box Office by you, a department administrator, or another delegate. The Box Office is open Mon–Fri: 10 am–6 pm, Sat: 1–6 pm, as well as 1 hour before all live shows and 30 minutes before all films. Should a faculty member or department administrator require special help coordinating ticket pick-up, they may be in touch with the Hop Box Office directly at hop.box@dartmouth.edu.

1 day following the event, you will receive an email containing a link to a brief digital survey to distribute to your students. This is an essential tool for assessing and improving our program, so we require it be completed by all participating faculty and students.

When NOT seeking funding student tickets (in cases where there are department funds to support student tickets):

Fill out the Curricular Connections Online Request form. This includes basic information about you, your course, which event you are hoping for your class to attend, exactly how many tickets are needed, the chart string of the funding source, and confirming how tickets will be picked up etc.

Within 3 business days of submitting your request, you will receive an email notification from the Box Office confirming

that your order was received

that your order had been processed, or with follow-up questions needed to complete your order

details about how your tickets may be picked up.

Please note: It is the faculty member’s responsibility to pick up the tickets and distribute them to their students, or to send a delegate to do this (such as a department administrator). The Box Office will not issue Curricular Connections tickets to individual students at the window. Should a faculty member or department administrator require special help coordinating ticket pick-up, they may be in touch with the Hop Box Office directly at hop.box@dartmouth.edu.

The program is funded by the Hop Experiential Learning Fund (whereas additional funding was formerly provided by DCAL). The Hop Experiential Learning Fund is divided into an operating budget for performing arts support and for film support.

The funding requirements for both performing arts and film events are as follows:

The arts event must be an assigned part of the course and integrated into the course. The fund does not support student tickets for arts events that are not specifically assigned, only a portion of a class is expected to attend or that are not substantively integrated into the course.

The fund is reserved for cases where no other funding is readily available. Such funding alternatives include

Departmental discretionary budgets for experiential learning or special events.

Dedicated funding tied to specific courses (such as film) for students to attend films or arts events.

Outside funding from other Dartmouth offices or initiatives.

The fund is generally reserved for use one time per class per term per medium (film/performing arts). In other words, a faculty member is less likely to receive funding if they are applying for more than one arts events for the same class in the same term. However, faculty can apply for funding:

for a class each term it is offered;

if multiple courses taught the same term that would benefit from attending the same event;

for one performing arts event and one film event, even if for the same class in the same term.

The faculty member follows the established process and has appropriately used the program in the past.

There are sufficient funds remaining in the Hop Experiential Learning Fund for performing arts or film.

Funding allocation decisions are made by the Hop’s Curricular Connections Coordinator, in consultation with the Hop’s Programming/Arts Education department, Film department and Director of External Affairs. Special exceptions and grants are sometimes made, so we encourage faculty to apply using the Curricular Connections Request Form even if you are uncertain of whether you qualify for funding.

If my class received Curricular Connections support for an event, do I get a free ticket as well?Yes. It will be included along with the tickets prepared for your class.

What do you mean that the arts event must be assigned and integrated into my course?The event must be required for all students in your class to attend, and there must be a discussion of relevance to the course it is assigned to.

When can I retrieve the tickets for my class?4 business days before the event (or sooner if the Box Office has confirmed your tickets are ready). 7 business days before your event, you will be asked to provide a final/revised ticket count. Once this is confirmed with the Box Office and the Coordinator, you will be sent an email that your tickets are ready to be picked up.

How do I receive the tickets for my class?Once you receive confirmation that your tickets are ready for pickup, the tickets will be available at the Hop Box Office (open Mon–Fri: 10 am–6 pm, Sat: 1–6 pm, 1 hour before live shows and 30 minutes before films)

We no longer mail tickets to Hinman Boxes and the Box Office will not be able to issue Curricular Connections tickets to individual students.

What should I do if I think an arts event if relevant to my class, but I do not want to formally assign it.This is common, but students will need to pay for their own tickets or have tickets covered by department funding.

Can my students connect directly with the artists?Absolutely! We would love to work to make that happen. Please connect with Hop Education and Outreach by emailing hop.outreach@dartmouth.edu.

How is the program funded?It is funded by the Hop Experiential Learning Fund. In prior years it was funded by DCAL, but that has since ended.

What are the funding parameters for receiving support for the Hop Experiential Learning Fund?Please see the funding section above for more information.

How do I know if there is other funding available for me to bring my class?You can contact your department administrator or the Curricular Connections Coordinator at Curricular.Connections@dartmouth.edu or calling 603.646.1577.

To create opportunities for experiential learning through collective experiences of live arts and film. The program supports the following core elements of experiential learning, as defined by the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL): connecting theory to practice by engaging with real-world issues and ideas; incorporating and applying diverse perspectives; building empathy and cultural intelligence; and challenging students to think critically and reflect on their learning.

To make fertile connections between the Dartmouth curriculum and the art supported by the Hop, and to establish productive, educational relationships with faculty.

To increase student attendance and awareness of opportunities at the Hop, particularly among students who would not otherwise regularly attend arts events.

To facilitate the process of reserving, processing and assessing class attendance, and minimize the administrative workload for both faculty and the Hop staff.

To support student attendance at programs co-sponsored by academic departments or programmed in collaboration with a specific class.

Many of the artists listed are available for workshops, discussions, meals and class visits. Hop Outreach can provide supplemental materials about the artists and events, including articles, program notes, videos and more.

Free, public programs accompany many Hop performances. Most don’t require a reservation, but let us know if you’re bringing a group of students and we’ll be happy to make accommodations.

Each term we publish a digital guide outlining possible curricular connections between arts events and specific courses being offered at Dartmouth. We try to be proactive in our outreach to faculty members whose courses we think might benefit from Curricular Connections; however, faculty members are also encouraged to contact us directly should they be interested in having a class attend a Hop event.